Safety container



1954 F. DE SANTIS ETAL SAFETY CONTAINER 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Sept. 23, 1950.

Oct. 12, 1954 F. DE SANTIS ETAL 2,691,463

SAFETY CONTAINER Filed Sept 23, 1950 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 24 2.7 q I! I HM I 3%| "19W 10 t Mum? L20 W jnyg 'INVENTORS'. Frank fie Sa d BY H. 08

Patented Oct. 12, 1954 2,691,463 SAFETY CONTAINER Frank De Santis, Bayside, and Herbert A.Coe, Port Washington, N.';Y.

Application September 23, 1950, Serial No. 186,404

3 Claims. (01. 220-5-88)" Our present inventionrelates to safety containers or other enclosures containing inflammable material and more particularly to the means for automatically closing a container for inflammable materialwhen the latter becomes ignited,- and aims to providecertain improvements therein.

It is often necessary as in the watch repair-- and other industries to use inflammable liquids such as gasoline, naphthaand the like for cleaning small parts and articles. In cleaning such parts andarticles it is customary to use a container wherein th inflammable liquid and the parts or articles may be placed and the fluid swished around in order to effect the cleaning action., In. most jurisdictions the law requires that cleaning fluids of the character setforth be stored in fireproof containers equipped with a spring actuated cover. When the cleaning fluid is to be used by workmen, however, it is common.v

practice merely to transfer the fluid to a working vessel which is ordinarily not provided with any safety cover and whichusually does not meet the fire prevention requirements. It. sometimes happens that a sparkfroma cigarette, pipe, electric motor or a. static-electric chargewillignite the combustiblevapors and will cause serious injury to the workmen or fire loss to the plant. Other containers like wastepaper baskets. and. recepta: clesfor-inflammable materials suchv as trash,,0ily

rags and the like also present the hazard that.

their contentsmayignite from carelessly thrown matches; lit cigarettes, spontaneous combustion,

sparks and other causes.

Hence, the need becomes/apparent for confining any flame or flretaking place-in a-receptacle containing the-inflammable liquidor material to the-receptacle and for automatically closing off said-receptacle to prevent additional air from feeding the-flame; thus, causing carbon dioxide to form withintheenclosed space to smother and forth an automatic latch to hold the cover-se curely closed: on the container after saidscover.

has been automatically closed due to the ignition of the contents of the container.

(4), To provide in such container reusable means for automatically causing a closing of the cover in the event of fire within the container.

The foregoing and other-objects of our invention not specifically enumerated we accomplish by providing a bimetallic member which upon being heated deforms to release means for holding the cover open, whereby the cover will snap closed and .so remainv until manually reopened. The invention in its structural and operative aspects will be .better understood from the detailed description which follows, when considered in connectionwith the accompanying drawings showing a preferred embodiment, wherein Figure 1 isa top plan view of a safety container embodying ourinvention.

Fig. .2 isa frontelevation ofthe safety container showninFig. 1

Fig.3 is a side elevation of the safety container shown in Fig.2 taken at a right angle thereto and partlybrokenaway and containing inflammable cleaningfluidandarticles to be cleaned,

Fig. 4 is a side elevationview of part of the safety container showing the, relationship of the:

parts thereof whenthe container is open.

Fig-..,5,is. a perspective viewof the bimetallic element constitutin .an important detail of our invention Fig.6 is a sectional view taken in the plane of theline 6.-6.of- Fig.. 8.

Fig. '7 isa front elevationview taken in the plane of the. line, of Fig. 8.-

Fig. 8 is a side elevation View taken inthe plane- 'ofthe line 88 of Fig. '7.

Fig.. 9 ,is a front elevation view of the latch. Referring to. the drawings in the various figures of .whichthesame reference characters are employed to. designate, corresponding parts, the safety containermay besaid to consist of a re:

ceptaclelll .on which a cover- II is mounted by means of ,a hinge I2, said cover being normally biased by aspring I 3to closed position. The hinge I2 .is fasteneclto thereceptacle l0 .andto cover .I I, by any-suitable means such as rivets l4. InFig. ,3 thewall ,of the container is partly broken away .to show the manner in which smallwatch parts l5 may be subjected to the cleaning action ofnthecleaning fluid, ,l 6 in the container.

To-enable the cover .I l of the safety container to, remain. open under normal use, there is, Drovided an angular bar I! one end of which is adapted to be manually engaged with a shoulder formed in the annular flange l3 on'the cover H i when open, as, shown inlFig. 4 and Fig. 8. In accordance withthe present, invention, the bar I7 is held in engagin positionagainstsaid shoulder by applicants? .novel, temperature responsive con-- trol means which includes a latch 22 controlled by and preferably, as shown in the embodiment illustrated in the drawings, forming an integral part of a bimetallic split ring element 19 formed by joining two dissimilar metals along their facial boundaries, said metals having different coefficients of expansion and so arranged relative to: each other that the opening in the split ring becomes greater when the temperature is elevated and returns to its initial size when normal room: temperatures are reached. A casing 20 is mounted within the receptacle l and one end of the bimetallic element I9 is fastened by means; of two rivets 2| to said casing 2s. A spacer element a serves to hold the bimetallic element 19 a short distance from the casing 20. The other end of the bimetallic element is free to move under the influence of temperature changes and is shaped in the form of a detent 22 which serves as a latch (best seen in Figs. 5, 6, and 7) to hold the bar I! in the engaged position when manually placed there. The bar I1 is pivotally mounted on a shaft 23 and is also free to move laterally thereon to facilitate manual engagement and disengagement with the latch. The shaft 23 is. mounted in a bearing 24 which is fastened to the back of the casing 20 and to the receptacle 10 by any suitable means, such as a rivet 25. A spring 25 is wound about the shaft 23 with one end fastened to the bearing and the other end looped around the bar I! to normally bias said bar into the receptacle and out of engagement with the cover. The disengaged position of the bar ll is shown in phantom in Fig. 8. When the vapor of the cleaning fluid i6 is ignited, the increased temperature produced by the resulting flame causes the bimetallic element 19 to increase in diameter and to withdraw the detent 22 from holding engagement with the bar ll, thereby permitting the bar I! to move to its disengaged position under the influence of spring 25 and permitting the cover H to snap to closed position under the influence of its biasing spring 13. The receptacle and the cover are provided with additional cooperating latching means consisting of a catch 2'! fastened to the receptacle and a resilient hasp 28 secured to the cover II to permit the opening in the hasp to move elastically over the catch 2? to become fastened thereover automatically by the force created by the inertia of the rapidly closing cover I I after it has been suddenly released from its open position.

In order that the cover ll may be opened or closed as desired and therefore not restricted to the automatic operation of the bimetallic element, the bar ll as shown in Fig. 7 may be manually pushed to the left against the resistance of spring 26 until the bar I! is free of the restraining action of the detent 22 on the bimetallic element l9. This permits the bar H to be returned to its disengaged position under the influence of spring 26. The cover I i is thereby released from its held-open position and is permitted to return to its closed position. The latch provided by catch 21 and the resilient hasp 28 may also be manually closed and released.

From the foregoing detailed description it will be readily understood that with our novel safety container, a fire taking place within it will be automatically extinguished and its contents will be automatically isolated to prevent spreading of the fire. It will also be appreciated that in accomplishing this purpose, there is no added inconvenience to the method of cleaning parts or in handling inflammable fluids.

It will, of course, be understood that the prescut invention may be applied to all types of containers such as rooms in a house, compartments of a ship, airplane and the like, which present the problems of confining and exinguishing flames, hence, we do not wish to be limited to the details of construction disclosed since changes in carrying out the inventive concept disclosed may be made within the range of mechanical skill without departing from the spirit of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

What we claim is:

1. A safety container comprising a receptacle having an open top, a first biasing spring, a cover hingedly mounted on the receptacle and biased by said first spring to closing position, a second biasing spring, an arm pivotally mounted within the: receptacle and biased by said second spring to a position within the receptacle, said arm beingmanually movable against the spring-biasing action of said second spring to engage the cover when in open position to hold said cover open, temperature responsive control means mounted in said receptacle and having a detent portion for normally engaging said arm to hold it in its lastmentioned position, said temperature responsive control means comprising a bimetallic split ring positioned to receive said arm between. the ends forming the split opening and having said detent portion as an integral portion thereof constituting one of said ends, said split ring being deformable upon being heated to a predetermined temperature to increase in diameter to disengage said detent portion from said arm, whereby said arm will move through the split opening into the receptacle under the influence of said second biasing spring and said cover will snap closed under the influence of said first biasing spring.

2. A safety container according to claim 1 wherein said arm is movable both pivotally and laterally in said split opening.

3. A container automatically closed when subiected to a predetermined abnormal temperature comprising a body having an opening for gaining access to the interior of the body, a cover for said opening carried by and movable relatively to said body, means pivotally mounted within said container to engage said cover for holding said cover normally in open position when said holding means is maintained in engagement with said cover, means biasing said cover in a direction tending to close the opening, and temperature responsive control means positioned in releasable engagement with said holding means normally to maintain said holding means in engagement with said cover to maintain said cover in open position against the action of said biasing means, said control means including a bimetallic member deformable upon being heated to said predetermined temperature to release said holding means, whereby said cover will snap closed under the infiuence of said biasing means when said predetermined temperature is reached.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 736,71 Gendron Aug. 18, 1903 1,053,758 Turnbull Feb. 18, 1913 1,083,715 Weber Jan. 6, 1914 1,388,942 Fuller Aug. 30, 1921 1,993,507 Flegel Mar. 5, 1935 2,250,045 Focke et a1 July 22, 1941 2,443,095 Conant June 8, 1948 2,564,295 Benz Aug. 14, 1951 

